News

2017.4.19

ONIGIRI was officially selected by JAPAN FILM FESTIVAL in LOS ANGELES 2017!www.jffla.org

2017.2.18

Welcome to The Oak Tree & Onigiri!

Trailer

Story

On a beautiful hillside in pre-World War 2 Los Angeles, Sachi, a young Japanese girl, plants an oak seed with her father. There, he begins teaching her lessons about life, family, and tradition. On December 7th 1941, the world as she knows it is shattered forever; she and her mother are wrongfully interned and her father enlists in the military never to return. Ten years later, and irrevocably altered, Sachi returns to find she and her mother outcasts, but the oak tree she planted with her father has not only survived, somehow, and most mysteriously, it has thrived.

*This is a short film. The characters and events depicted in this motion picture are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

BACKGROUND

Staff

Executive Producers

Sean Sprawling

Sean Sprawling is an Actor, Producer and Business Owner who studied Acting at The Meisner Technique Studio in San Francisco where he currently resides and operates his businesses: Sean Sprawling Productions LLC & Sutro Lab LLC.

From a young age as early as six, Sean was a natural business man selling candy and toys at school and to neighborhood kids but his dream was always to be a performer. Never seeing any boys on Film or TV that looked like him, as a child Sean found himself in the emotional vulnerability and powerful physical presence in female actors such as Angela Bassett. "She was my favorite actress as a child. When I saw her as Tina Turner I would watch the film over and over and imitate her as Tina. I would wrap a bed sheet around my waist and a t-shirt around my head so I could pretend I had long hair so I could do the head banging move in "Proud Mary". I wanted to be like her and other strong women like Jessica Lange, Halle Berry and Sally Field". Sean identifies as Gender Fluid and is still heavily influenced by the work of women and has even been cast in female roles.

Sean is a diverse actor who studied under Jim Jarrett, Sandford Meisner's last teaching protege & Melissa Thompson Esaia, the school's Assistant Director. Sean completed training winning best actor and best film awards and was the only person of his original 18 person class to finish the intense two year program.

Sean's upcoming projects include "Wolf Mother" a Feature Film which will have it's theatrical release in February 2017, a principal role in Practical Effects Master Hiroshi Katagiri's (The Hunger Games, Pirates of The Caribbean, Jurassic Park) award winning debut feature film "Gehenna: Where Death Lives" with Doug Jones and Lance Henriksen and "Be A Good Boy", a feature film with original story by Sean Sprawling to be released summer of 2018.

Shinichiro Okano

Born and raised in Tokyo, Shinichiro made his debut as an actor with the leading role in Ichiban Daiko for the NHK Renzoku TV Shosetsu (The NHK Continuation Serialized Novel for Television, also known as the NHK Asadora) in 1985. After this successful debut, Shinichiro played lead for many TV shows and movies in 1986.

Years later, Shinichiro moved to New York to study both acting and producing at HB Studio as an exchange student under the overseas training program for upcoming artists of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. After he went back to Japan, he founded Hybrid Productions, LLC., to start his new career as a producer. In 1997, he established Hybrid Arts, Inc. with director Mr. Takanori Higuchi, producing many plays and movies, as well as managing casting.

In 2003, Shinichiro moved to Los Angeles and worked for UTB (United Television Broadcasting Systems, Inc. CH 18.2) in Hollywood as a producer. Two theatrically released independent films, “Toyo’s Camera”(2008) and “442”(2009), are Shinichiro’s main credits. After retiring from UTB, Shin produced “SEED,” a feature documentary film about the oldest Japanese American rice farm in California.

Producer

Koodae Kim

Koodae Kim was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan. She is a former certified public accountant, an audit manager in the financial and auditing field for six years. In 2014 she launched her career in filmmaking as she entered into American Film Institute, the one of the most respectful film schools in the world and earned MFA degree in producing. Her recent acclaimed produced film includes "Gehenna ~ Where Death Lives ~ directed by Hiroshi Katagiri, a longtime top artist in the field of special effect makeup which was an official selection of ShrieKFest, Bram Stoker, A Night of Horror and NYC Horror Film Festival. She was also in charge as an international story producer for Netflix's ambitious TV series "Ultimate Beastmaster", executive produced by Sylvester Stallone. She is currently producing a satire comedy feature film which will be shot in Japan Summer 2017.

Director

Masanori Baba

Born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, Masa graduated from Sophia University. He moved to Los Angeles right after graduation to pursue his dream of film making.

Masa enrolled in the University of California, Los Angeles Extension Program, where he completed courses in film production, subsequently writing, producing and directing his first short film, Chiyo. Chiyo had the honor to be selected as a semi-finalist for the 79th Academy Awards.

Masa previously worked for about six years as a Producer’s Assistant at an independent film production/distribution company in Hollywood. He was also previously an Associate Producer for a joint American/Japanese television pilot show funded by the Japanese government.

In 2010, Masa created his own production company. Several feature film projects are currently under development, including an adaptation for a well-known Japanese non-fiction novel based on a true story, as well as Chiyo’s feature film. Masa has also worked on a large, high budget movie script for a Hollywood major studio as a translator, such as Godzilla. He has recently finished a non-profit feature documentary project, SEED: the Life of the Rice King and his Kin, about the oldest family owned rice farm in California.

As director/producer, Masa puts his heart and soul into every project.

Screenplay writers

Masanori BabaJustin Long

Although a Los Angeles native, Justin Long grew up in a multicultural household. Born to an American father and European mother, Justin spent much of his youth traveling between the two continents, this circumstance uniquely influenced and diversified his writing style. After cutting his teeth for several years working at two prominent production companies in Las Vegas, he returned to Los Angeles to study screenwriting and character analysis at Playhouse West. In 2011 one of the scripts he co-wrote, “Estranged” was adapted into a short film and produced by George Gallo (known for Midnight Run, Middle Men).
Justin currently has one project in development.

Director of Photography

Daniel Cotroneo

Daniel Cotroneo is an American cinematographer and winner of the 2015 Emerging Cinematographer Award. He earned a BFA in cinematography from Chapman University in Los Angeles and honed his eye for lighting working on such films as Star Trek Into Darkness, Django Unchained and the acclaimed television series Mad Men.

Since becoming a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, Daniel's work has taken him across the globe. He has been featured in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and ICG Magazine for his recent work on the The Other Side and the feature documentary Seed. Other recent work includes the Danish drama Mens Vi Lever and the comedy feature Love Arcadia.

As director/producer, Masa puts his heart and soul into every project.

Sound Design

Jay Brady

Jay Brady has lived in Los Angeles for 12 years and has been a part of several types of productions and post productions, ranging from Independent Films and Shorts, to reality TV and Feature Films. He has serviced all areas of the Film Making process, from production DIT(Digital Image Technician) to post production workflow design involving 4K Digital Intermediate. His main passion, audio, sound, and music is what made him choose Music Engineering for his topic of study in college. He has a very big interest in independent and documentary film making, which he feels is a great resource for educating and sharing topics, as well as telling a more detailed story. He is very excited to be a part of this project and will continue to use this as an opportunity to expand the abilities and creativity of his passion.

Production Designer

Natalia Korzanova

Editor

Yoshio Kohashi

Animation＆VFX

Masataka Minoura

Based on his foundations from animation and illustration from Academy of Art University, his pursuit of art is focused on the consistent logics. After a couple of years as a layout artist/animator at SPRITE Animation Studios, he started his freelancer’s career with illustration skill sets through multiple clients such as Walt Disney Imagineering. Mino-Miyabi is also an active artist to exhibitions and workshops at several annual conventions such as AnimeEXPO, Comic-Con, CTN Animation EXPO.

Unit Production Manager

Jeremy Chang

First Assistant Director

Meghan Burchfield

Casting Directors

Kei Ogawa
Chihiro Kawamura

Camera Operator

Daniel Cotroneo

First Assistant Cameras

Jessica Pantoja
Anderson Ko

Second Assistant Cameras

Kyle Sorvig
Francisco Aguilar

Still Photographers

Don Ptashne
Megumi Bacher

Script Supervisor

Wanqiu Sun

Electricians

Osnat Said
Scott Hillman
John Edpao
Kyle Sorvig
Jose Nava

Set Decorator

Satoko Yamamoto

Costume Designer

Ayako Yoshida

Costumer

Saori Mitome

Key Makeup Artist

Chinatsu Watanabe

Key Hair Stylist

Ikuko Remmenga

Assistant Makeup and Hair

Cassia Amy Yamada

Colorist

Yoshio Kohashi

Assistant Background Casting

Yutaka Takeuchi

Production Assistants

Masahiko Tago
Saki Ohta
Jose Nava

Creative Advisor

Taka Higuchi

Studio Teacher

Daniel Drabinsky

Catering

INAHO INC (Rice Man)

Craft Service

Misa Okano

Web Design

Shinya Yukawa

THE FILMMAKERS WISH TO THANK:

Yukari Aoi

Mie Aso

Stephen Berkov

Catherine Beverly

Cyrus Choi

Mitsuko Floral

Aya Futami

Sean Goldstein

Daniel Godinez

Aracely Gutierrez

Steve Gutierrez

Morihisa Harada

Sachiyo K

Brian Kito

Tomoko Kito

Leila Kurosawa

Gabriel Mays

Yoriko Nishi

Emily Noguchi

Mariko Nomura

Naoko Okada

Yukiko Okada

Eijiro Ozaki

Frances Palmer

Sheryl Ptashne

David Ptashne

Sean Ptashne

Kaidon Ptashne

Mark Russo

Yoshiki Takada

Isako Takada

Chikako Takasaki

Kennedy Taylor

Minoru Tonai

Tamiko Uyehara

Chiyako Yokota

Kayo Yoshida

Teruhisa Yoshida

VENDORS

KOBAN

Gallery

Contact

This motion picture is the property of Masayume Studios LLC and is protected under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.